Sunday, December 13, 2009

Just after the fall television season started, we begin agonizing over the fates some of our favorite shows. Considering that at one time NBC's Heroes garnered more than 16 million viewers, the CW's Smallville more than 8 million, and Fox's Fringe more than 13 million, this year's numbers were startling and terrible, not to mention being at an all-time low!

What happened? Could all our sci-fi shows end up canceled like Fox's Dollhouse? How can we have so many of our shows be in trouble and on the bubble? What about the DVR ratings? Sure, we've got ABC's V and FlashForward to carry on, but Lost is in its last season. Could this be the end of sci-fi as we know it on network TV?

According to TVbytheNumbers.com and other media ratings analysts, things might not be as grim as they appear at first glance. In fact, according to that site, Smallville and V are looking likely to get picked up, while Fringe, Heroes and FlashForward are on the bubble, with FlashForward in the most danger right now.

Here's how it all shakes out for your favorite shows up to this point:TIME-SHIFT VIEWING:

Our shows do great in DVR and other time-shift ratings (meaning viewers watch the show after its original air time in some way). According to TVbytheNumber's Bill Gorman, "In the last full week before Thanksgiving, Fringe (43%), Smallville (40%) and The Office (34%) posted the largest % ratings increases in Live+ 7 day DVR viewing from their Live+Same Day adults 18-49 ratings (November 16-22)." Heroes, V and FlashForward also added 30% or more to their numbers.

NBC:Heroes: On Dec. 2, E!'s Kristin Dos Santos had all but written off Heroes' future when "a well-placed source" told her, "Everyone is expecting this to be the last season. The cast, the crew, everyone." However, on Monday, Dec. 7, she wrote, "So you're saying there's a chance it might stick around?! That's the latest word coming out of camp Heroes, now that NBC has recast Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes' Mohinder) in the net's own pilot Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, giving the role to Jerry O'Connell instead. An NBC rep said Ramamurthy pulled out of Rex because of a scheduling conflict with Heroes, which was in first position." (First position means he couldn't accept another role if Heroes got picked up.)

Considering NBC's poor ratings for Jay Leno, if the network decides (as many have speculated) to cancel the series, they're going to need scripted and reality fare to fill up the five hours a week Leno is now on. And, sad as the ratings are, with fewer than 6 million viewers watching most Mondays, Heroes is their second-best-performing drama, after Law & Order: SVU. It's still a bubble show, but there is hope.

Coming up: Chuck, Day One

ABC:V: HitFix's Daniel Fienberg commented, "After two straight weeks of falling ratings after its blockbuster premiere, ABC's V stabilized on Tuesday night, joining the Dancing with the Stars finale to give the network a win in the 18-49 demographic."

MediaWeek's Marc Berman added: "On ABC was V at a consistent 9.20 million viewers (#2) and a third-place 3.1/ 9 among adults 18-49 at 8 p.m. Four episodes into its run and V is going on hiatus until it returns later in the season in a miniseries format. Bad programming move, ABC!"Both V and FlashForward will be off the air until spring, and both had their episode order cut by one episode. While ratings were going up for V and down for FlashForward, it doesn't mean much. What's going to count for ABC is what the ratings are when they return come spring.FlashForward: Cliqueclack's Brett Love wrote, "ABC has now announced that FlashForward will be taking a little break, with new episodes returning March 4th. And that really couldn't have come at a worse time. Television is not usually a place where absence makes the heart grow fonder. More likely, viewers forget what you were up to and can't be bothered to return. If that wasn't bad enough, the show took its fall bow with its worst performance yet."

Gorman added, "FlashForward ended its fall run on a down note, scoring just a 2.1 rating for adults 18-49. Short of a miraculous reversal in its ratings trend when it returns in March, it's not coming back next fall."

And: Better Off Ted just started its second season, while Lost premieres its sixth and final season Feb. 2.

CBS:Likely to be renewed: Medium, Ghost Whisperer

THE CW:Smallville: It certainly looked like the end when the CW moved Smallville to Fridays AND it dropped about half its viewers. Note to fans... Ratings on Friday nights suck. TVbytheNumber's Gorman commented, "For most broadcast shows, exile to Friday means your network thinks the show is past its time and should peacefully fade away without damaging the ratings of shows on Sunday-Thursday. That's likely the idea that the CW had when it put Smallville on Fridays this season. But defying conventional wisdom (and to many fans, the wishes of CW chief Dawn Ostroff), not only has Smallville refused to go quietly, it was tied for second best adults 18-49 rating on the CW last week. I know that the CW targets women 18-34, but be certain they sell advertising based on whatever attractive demo ratings they get. Those results cannot be ignored."

Likely to be renewed: The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural

Fox:Fringe: Regarding last Thursday's episode, TV Guide's Adam Bryant wrote, "Fringe pulled in its highest ratings since the season premiere, according to early Nielsen estimates... The supernatural Fox procedural pulled in 6.9 million viewers and climbed in the adults 18-to-49-demo."

TV Overmind's Jon Lachonis added, "Good news for Fringe fans. If you are worried about how FOX might feel about Fringe's waning ratings, turn your frown upside down. FOX celebrated its seventh straight week as a winner (by FOX math), and had no qualms about parading Fringe as part of its lineup of ratings winners. It's not surprising to see FOX celebrating Fringe's performance though, as last week's episode matched the Fringe season 2 premiere numbers—a feat any show would be hard pressed to pull off ... If Fringe can hold onto those numbers—or even improve on them—the prospects for a third season are better than ever. Considering the fact that the Fringe episode that aired last week, titled 'Snakehead', was one of the best of the season, you'd have to think that hopes are running high."

Already canceled: Dollhouse (with half the season remaining to air)And: Human Target and Past Life are headed our way for mid-season.What do you think about the ratings game? Will your favorite show survive?

JOHN PINETTE......ENJOY!!

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The Sun is a powerful force in our Universe. It brings us light, warmth and a promise of a galaxy beyond the stars. Often we associate massive flashes of light with the reflection of our Sun's light bouncing off of another surface.

This is not always the case though, especially if you believe that we are truly not alone in the Universe. When we witness things that we can't readily explain we sometimes turn our heads and shrug our shoulders in a display of apathy.

A display such as this occurred on Friday January 29, 1982 at the Crater Lake National Park just outside of Chemult, Oregon. The snow had been falling steadily for a period of four days. The winds had been whisking about at 40 miles per hour.Then there was one of those unnatural flashes of light. This created an eerie silence as a lanky boy, just nine years old, seemed to appear from out of that flash. If he had walked to this point there would have been a distinct trail in the newly fallen snow.There was no trail and as a matter of fact the only tracks in the snow were the ones that outlined his feet where he was standing.

He began to trudge through the snow wearing what could only be described as dark brown long johns. He seemed dazed yet, at the same time, very clear about the direction that he was travelling. This boy with no identity or name seemed to be on a mission that would take him to places he had never been before.His main goal was to reach Chemult, Oregon and he had no intention of stopping until he accomplished this. As strange as it seems the extreme cold seemed to have little or no effect on him at all.

Why Chemult? What was so special about this town located at an elevation of 4,758 feet above sea level in a frozen winter wilderness in Oregon?

The town of Chemult was first opened to the local traffic in 1926 and here in 1982, with its population of only 241, offered little in the way of comfort for a nine year old boy who was all alone. This journey, although prompted by something deep inside of him, did not provide a feeling of comfort and yet he had hoped that he would at least experience a feeling of accomplishment once he reached the town.

The wind was getting stronger and he noticed a small piece of yellow paper tattered and torn from whipping about in the snow. He only stopped long enough topick up this paper..........it read:

.....With the winter season here there was a lot of fun to have. Travelling miles of open trails on snow mobiles skiing or simply hiking, but there are dangers of doing so. Please remember safety first. Do not travel alone and be sure someone knows where you are and where you are going before travelling our trails, and please read the safety rules and codes of ethics before hiking the trails...

Nightfall was near and he had already walked 38 of the 40 miles needed to reach Chemult. He was just off of Route 97 when he spotted an old barn just about 200 feet NE of his present location. Making his way to the barn he went in and found it to be totally deserted, it was a perfect place to rest for the night.

Morning had arrived and once awake the boy started to look around the barn in the daylight light to see if there was anything that was lying in the barn that he could use to assist him on his trek.

Over in the far corner of the barn he found an old metal locked box that had long been forgotten. It was all rusted out and the key was nowhere to be found. After several failed attempts to open the box the young boy closed his eyes, sat back on his tired limbs and placed the palm of his right hand on top of the box. All of a sudden a dull red glow appeared from his right palm and the box lid flew open. Strangely enough once the red glow disappeared all that remained was a faint thin black outline where the outside of the red mark had appeared on his palm. Inside of the box he found several items all of which were unfamiliar to him and it was obvious that they had been therefor a very long time.

The contents included a tattered passport with the picture missing, a pocket knife, a compass, an antique pocket watch with a broken crystal, a time-worn souvenir porcelain coffee mug with the words; "Atlanta, Georgia, The Peach State, A Perfect Place to Live", on it and a frayed map of the Metro Atlanta Area It was difficult to make out the name on the passport but with a couple of light brushes with his fingers he saw the name Jason Tredmore. This is now who this boy would become.

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From the time I was 6yrs old and my mother took me to the theatre to see “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” in 1958 I have been drawn to and intrigued by all that is unusual. Sci-Fi, Horror, Paranormal, Monsters, Vampires, Werewolves, etc…. As I progressed through life I was taken aback by the shear genius of the work of Ray Harryhausen. He was the master of the moveable monsters like the Cyclops in the movie referenced above. Later my interests latched onto 50’s Sci-Fi black and white movies where I ran into the original “The Day The Earth Stood Still”. Whenever I watched a show or movie or read a book I literally saw myself entrenched in the story. I felt what the characters felt, saw what they saw and experienced what they experienced. It was the attraction to that which put a tiny thought into my mind to write a story. Since this time I have written my first Sci-Fi Book called "Strolok" and it is available for purchase here and I have already started a second book.